The hotel that took the county name Esmeralda

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, P0126, 1-01.)

“Aurora, almost forgotten save by those who neighbor it, though it was once the mining sensation of the West, municipality of some few thousand inhabitants.”[1]

“The people of the district applied to the California legislature for a new county, Mono, saving a large portion of the citizens from being victims of anarchy or still worse, of being subjected to the hated and oppressive laws of Utah.”[2]

“Aurora, within 8 months of the day of white men seeing [it] became the seat of government of a new county by a state which had no jurisdiction.”[3]

When the county seat left, the people left too. “Sixteen million in production, a very shallow mine.”[4]